Sir William Blackstone

Overview
Extended Catalogue Entry

by Unknown artist
oil on canvas, circa 1755
49 in. x 39 1/4 in. (1245 mm x 997 mm)
Purchased, 1874
Primary Collection
NPG 388

Sitterback to top

Sir William Blackstone (1723-1780), Jurist. Sitter in 2 portraits.

Artistback to top

Unknown artist, Artist. Artist or producer associated with 6556 portraits.

Linked publicationsback to top

Ingamells, John, National Portrait Gallery: Mid-Georgian Portraits 1760-1790, 2004, p. 58
Saywell, David; Simon, Jacob, Complete Illustrated Catalogue, 2004, p. 59

Subjects & Themesback to top

Events of 1755back to top

Current affairs

George Grenville resigns as Treasurer of the Navy and Henry Bilson Legge as Chancellor of the Exchequer in protest over payments made to Russia to protect Hanover. William Pitt the Elder is dismissed from the position of Paymaster of the Forces.

Art and science

Samuel Johnson publishes his monumental Dictionary; the first authoritative dictionary of the English language.
Methodist preacher John Wesley publishes Notes on a New Testament.

International

An earthquake nearly completely destroys Lisbon, Portugal. The event is widely discussed by European Enlightenment thinkers, inspiring Voltaire's Candide. Its intensive study leads to the birth of modern seismology and earthquake engineering.
Edward Braddock fights French and Indian troops in the Ohio valley. His army are ambushed at Fort Duquesne and he is killed; one of several encounters prior to the declaration of the Seven Years War.

Tell us more back to top

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Martin Hopkinson

09 June 2021, 09:38

This looks later
Could it be by Mr Walker who exhibited a portrait of this sitter as no 256 at the Free Society in 1782?
Walker's address apparently was Walker's Court, Berwick Street. This was on the north side of Little Pulteney Street.
He might have been an amateur and a lawyer

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